Sep 27, 20193 min read

Trick or Treat... or Mittens?

October, the scariest time of the year, is approaching fast! This year I thought I'd arrange something fun — and a little spooky — while you wait for Hallowe'en to come. What could that mean? A little Halloween-themed mystery KAL of course!

What the What?

The Horror-riffic Halloween Mystery Mittens are a pair of stranded colorwork mittens inspired by a classic oldie black-and-white era horror movie. Which one? You’ll have to knit them to find out...

When?

These mystery mittens are released in 9 clues over the month of October 2019. New clues come out on Ravelry every Tuesday and Friday, starting right at the top of the month on October 1. If you keep up with the clues, you’ll have a brand new pair of mittens just in time for trick-or-treating. The last one drops on October 29 so there's even a couple of days to spare!

What Do I Need?

To knit the Horror-riffic Halloween Mystery Mittens you need two colors of fingering-weight yarn, approx 50 g (or 195 m/215 yd) of each one. Pick two colors with a good amount of contrast between them. Black and white is always a great choice and it fits the theme of the mittens. But you don't have to stick with B&W — I didn't! Solids and semi-solids are ideal, gradients work too, but I wouldn't use anything that's too busily variegated.

I used 2.25 mm or US #1 needles but pick whichever needle size gives you the gauge of 32 sts x 38 rows over 10 cm/4". I also used a colorwork yarn guide (sometimes also known as a Norwegian knitting thimble) but that is entirely optional.

Click to download free info sheet for the Horror-riffic Halloween Mystery Mittens

How Do I Join?

To participate in the MKAL, purchase the pattern via Ravelry. Make sure you're logged in first to have all clues delivered automatically to you as they're released. And if you join my mailing list before October 1, you'll receive 20% off the pattern price.

Not sure if you'd enjoy the mystery? Download this free info sheet first!

Join the camaraderie in the talvi knits group on Ravelry to discuss your color choices, speculate on the pattern, and admire the yarn prizes. Yes, there will be prizes! Read on.

Trick or Treat?

The trick to these mittens is that there are quite a lot of long floats in the design so this wouldn't be an ideal pattern if you're just starting out with colorwork. There are helpful tips and links for managing floats in colorwork offered within the pattern. I also going to post tutorials on my blog for some of the techniques used in the mittens.

The treat? Not only are you going to have a brand new pair of seasonally-appropriate mittens just in time for Halloween, there's also going to be three wonderful yarny prizes awarded at the end of the MKAL. Each prize contains two skeins of fingering-weight yarn (50 g each) and a free knitting pattern from my Ravelry store.

Yarn prizes for the Horror-riffic Halloween Mystery Mittens knitalong

The first set is two skeins of Tukuwool Fingering (100% wool, 195 m/50 g), donated by my local yarn store TitiTyy. The colorways are called Anga (dark brown) and Ruso (peach).
The second set, donated by Kässäkerho Pom Pom, is for an oceanic combo of Suoma Single (100% Finnsheep wool, single-ply, 205 m/50 g) in the colors Aqua (light aqua) and Muste (dark teal). Plus a lovely Knitting is my superpower postcard!
And the last one is donated by yours truly, a duo of BC Garn Bio Shetland (100% organic wool, 280 m/50 g) in SH28 Aubergine (purple) and SH41 Silver Gray.